Vigil held for Charlie Kirk on MU’s campus
Olivia Hayes
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Turning Point USA’s chapter at the University of Missouri held a vigil for conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Wednesday evening.
“It was a lot to see someone that had influenced me in becoming more open about my politics lose their life like that,” said Brenden Poteet, President of the Mizzou College Republicans.
Kirk, the national group’s founder, was shot and killed at a Wednesday event held at a Utah college.
MU chapter President Paige Schulte said at the event that they were in the final stages of getting Kirk to speak at the Columbia campus on Sept. 29.
ABC 17 News counted roughly 60 people in attendance at the vigil.
Daniel Seitz, Chief of staff for Missouri State Sen. Brad Hudson, spoke to ABC 17 News about fear of political violence among lawmakers.
“Charlie died in the midst of public discourse. He died doing something that the people who hated him demanded politicians do more of, which is speaking to them in public,” Seitz said.
Seitz said he worked with kirk when he was first starting up the conservative group Turning Point USA.
“Barack Obama at the time had really courted a lot of young people to come to the Democratic Party. So he was turning that on its on its face and saying, ‘Young people are not lost to the Republican Party. We can have a new generation of the the Reagan youth of the 80s,'” Seitz said.
He said political violence has become increasingly normalized during the past decade due to social media.
“It’s very easy to let that evil fester behind the screen and then because of what they hear and because of that echo chamber, what they see, they take that and it turns into violent action,” Seitz said.
U.S. Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) announced a pause to public events following the news of Kirk’s shooting.
“Due to this rise in political violence, our office will be pausing all public events, including town halls, until further notice. I will not risk the safety of my family, my staff, or my own personal safety because some choose violence over dialogue,” Alford wrote in in a text message to ABC 17 News while giving condolences on Kirk’s passing.
Seitz said Hudson will not be increasing his security detail as of right now, but safety is on the top of their mind in light of Kirk’s death.
“What we cannot do is give in to fear, we cannot give in to violence, we cannot give in to the people who would like to silence that discourse,” Seitz said.
President Donald Trump also ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Kirk through Sunday night.